Chapter Seventeen: The Northern Bureau Guards

Inside the grand hall of the imperial palace, a meeting was about to commence.

Guo Kang sat in his family’s designated seat, idly chatting with Li Xuanying beside him.

At the far end of the hall stood the Great Khan’s throne, though it was currently unoccupied. Next to it, in the seat reserved for the Regent, Guo Kang’s adoptive father sat listlessly, bored out of his mind.

The position of Regent was a simplified Roman office, roughly equivalent to the head of all ministers. Of course, it bore many differences from the Eastern Roman system.

The Eastern Roman Empire had an incredibly intricate hierarchy of offices, which evolved continuously over more than a millennium. Old offices transformed, new ones emerged, splitting or replacing the functions of the old. These new, old, real, and nominal titles all mixed together, making it difficult not only for Europeans to grasp, but even Guo Kang found it overwhelming.

In the later period, Eastern Roman offices divided into two parts: purely honorary titles without real power, and offices with actual authority. These two categories followed different conferment methods and systems. Each office was further divided into male, eunuch, and female classifications. The sheer variety made one marvel that the Great Qin Empire resembled the Song Dynasty in complexity. Without deep knowledge of the bureaucracy, it was hard to discern who was responsible for what.

His adoptive father’s Greek honorary title roughly translated as “Senior Noble.” The term “noble” in Latin originally meant “Augustus,” a title reserved for the empire’s sovereign. But as early as the Komnenian dynasty, it had been delegated to aristocratic bureaucrats.

Even the Doge of Venice and the Sultan of Rome had been granted this title. It could be said that no single pen could write down two “Ros”—three-eighths Roman and Turkic Roman alike bore the title Augustus of Rome.

Thus, the Purple Tent Khanate’s rampant bestowal of Roman emperor titles was simply a continuation of a fine tradition, something the local Greeks had long grown accustomed to.

Of course, Augustus was Augustus because there was only one, or at most two. When the title multiplied, Augustus ceased to be unique.

As the title’s proliferation continued, its value diminished. The Greeks began attaching prefixes to these titles. For example, “Senior Noble” was born this way. When the Purple Tent Khanate established its system, it directly imported this title, translating it as “Pillar of the State.”

Naturally, the Greeks added even more layers. Among those granted the noble title, the foremost was called “Chief Noble.” Later, perhaps feeling this insufficiently distinguished, titles like “Chief Noble Above All Nobles” and even “Chief Senior Noble Above All Nobles” emerged.

Their titles were so convoluted that even the Purple Tent Khanate could not exhaust them all. To this day, below the rank of Besai Khan, only the “Pillar of the State” remains in use.

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In recent months, the Great Khan and several Pillars of the State had been on the northwestern front, advancing into the heartland of Hungary in coordination with France’s western campaign. Others continued their annual recruitment tours across various regions. Guo Kang’s family, entrusted with the capital’s defense, was currently the only Pillar of the State remaining there, so he was responsible for important meetings.

Beyond the seats of the Great Khan and the Regent, several concentric circles of chairs were arranged, clearly divided into groups.

To the Great Khan’s right sat the powerful Southern Court hereditary lords. The rotating families—Guo, Li, Cao, and Shi—each had their representatives in their designated seats.

When Boryan Temür Khan first entered the city, thirteen hereditary lords occupied these seats. After the “Northern and Southern Wars,” only eleven remained. Following the “Anda War,” as compensation to local loyal forces, the remaining nine Pillars of the State agreed to a greater concession: only four representatives would attend regular meetings, with the remaining seats reserved for officials responsible for specific affairs. Thus, the current arrangement was formed.

Guo Kang now sat in his family’s place.

Originally, he had no intention of participating, or at most to watch from the sidelines—after all, with his adoptive father present, he felt no need to take the spotlight. Yet, before coming, his adoptive mother suddenly insisted that since the heads of several other families were absent, their heirs would attend on their behalf. Since that was the case, she wanted their child to go as well.

His adoptive mother believed that since he was tongue-tied and never won arguments, it was better for Guo Kang to say little and merely serve as a figurehead, lest those sharp-tongued Greeks mock him. Any necessary speeches could be made by the children instead.

Outside of warfare, his adoptive father rarely contradicted her, so disregarding Guo Kang’s hesitation, she dragged him along.

Upon seeing him, Li Xuanying, also representing his own father, happily came over, and the other two greeted him as well.

Facing them were representatives of the Northern Court nobles—first, Salaiwan Hututu Buha, stationed in Crimea, managing the tribes along the lower Dnieper; then Temür Salaiwan Georg, stationed at the former Belgo Salai territory, overseeing the tribes along the lower Volga; and Yeligo Salaiwan Yelüxin, based in Kiev, managing the steppes along the upper Dnieper.

The Northern Court Guards were one of the Khanate’s two main military forces. However, as the Khanate expanded, the shortcomings of this steppe army became increasingly apparent.

During the reign of the third Purple Tent Khan, Tututu, the Northern Court Guards reached their peak strength. Under the command of Regent Yixian Buha, they led the Qinchak Second Guard and the Biriar Third Guard to victories near Kiev and Smolensk against Lithuanian forces, and later defeated intervention forces from the White Tent Khanate near the Don River. Yet, after the wars, internal strife grew due to the imbalance of power among factions.

Though ultimately victorious, Regent Yixian Buha believed the steppe army’s flaws were too pronounced and called for reform. He hoped to dismantle the old tribal structure, reorganize and select elite troops, and form a new army.

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The Regent dispatched envoys to inspect the pastures of various tribes. Bearing the Khanate’s grand banner and carrying black iron pots on their backs, these envoys spread propaganda and recruited skilled warriors from among the nomads. Applicants were tested on horseback riding, archery, and close combat skills. For every ten qualified warriors, one iron pot was awarded, to be brought back to the capital.

The recruited warriors were organized into companies for concentrated training. Each company was allotted eighty iron pots, hence the reform became known as the “Eighty Pots” Reform.

Under Regent Yixian Buha’s leadership, the Khanate also restored the ancient Greek city of Chersonesus in Crimea as a stronghold, establishing farms around it. After two years of training the first batch of soldiers, the Regent sent emissaries to gather their kin and settle them in the northern Crimean steppes, setting up permanent institutions to manage the pastures. Thus, these elite steppe troops were severed from their original tribes and incorporated into a new organization.

Originally, the Northern Court Guards relied on conscripted tribal contingents, but these nobles and chieftains were not always reliable—finding excuses to avoid duty or staying idle on the battlefield was common. Whenever possible, each sought to preserve their tribe’s strength, letting others bear the losses and then dividing spoils among themselves.

The combat effectiveness of each tribe varied widely; core tribes were generally dependable, but peripheral ones often left much to be desired. The Khanate lacked direct authority to intervene and had to make do. A commander with authority could still compel them to fight, but replacing him with someone lacking deep roots or renown often meant these “allied troops” would pillage and flee.

As an experienced commander of the steppe army, Regent Yixian Buha was acutely aware of these flaws.

Now, after the new recruitment and reorganization, conditions had improved significantly. The Northern Court’s new troops exhibited far better discipline than the previous nomadic forces, obeyed orders more reliably, and showed greatly enhanced combat quality.

However, this blatant poaching naturally sparked widespread resentment among the steppe nobles.

After several recruitment rounds, rumors spread across the tribes. Even the Baturs under the Golden Horde’s various khans, enticed by the Purple Tent’s iron pots, defected in large numbers.

Regent Yixian Buha had earned great prestige among the tribes through a lifetime of campaigning, and while he lived, no one dared to cause trouble. But after he fell in battle against the Polish-Hungarian allied forces, news of his death immediately sparked rebellion among the steppe tribes.

Former Northern Court nobles colluded with Slavic princes and invited Lithuania, the White Tent Khanate, and Poland to launch a massive offensive. The Khanate was forced to end its southern war, negotiate peace with the Ottoman Empire, and delay plans to retake Constantinople, turning its full attention northward.